Shadow Panther (1997 Beast Wars Japan)

Height: 13.3cm; 15cm (beast mode overall length)

Articulation: 13 points total - Swivel neck; 3 points each arm: ball joint shoulder, upper-arm swivel, hinge elbow; 3 points each leg: ball joint hip, thigh swivel, hinge knee.

Colors: Molded black, yellow, red; Painted silver, grey

Accessories: Tail gun; "Gut" gun

Gallery: 23 images.

Author: ExVee


Recolors are certainly nothing new to Transformers. Quite a bit of 1984 was recolors. Beast Wars for the most part got off easy as far as that kind of thing went. Japan began to get dubbed episodes of Beast Wars a year after the US got the originals, and as the toyline began to take off in 1997 Takara padded out their initial line with a few extras the rest of us didn't get. Takara is of course known today as master of the black recolor, a reputation largely earned since around 2000, where barely a year could go by without something - anything being rereleased in black, only occasionally coming with any kind of sensible story to justify the darkness. But this phenomenon had already had a history by then.

Shadow Panther has a somewhat convoluted background. Originally part of the Beast Wars line proper in Japan, it was one of a few toys made available in the long-since defunct Hasbro Collector's webstore. In that application, it was sold as Tripredacus Agent - a stand-in name since Hasbro no longer held rights to sell a toy named Ravage. In the original Japanese use, the toy is also Ravage. Or maybe Ravage's son. Or maybe some guy who's a big fan of Ravage. Or maybe a giant chicken! Greater minds than me have tried to make sense of the many conflicting backgrounds, but Japanese fiction is difficult enough to wring logic from without tossing in kind of contrary Hasbro input at the same time.




Beast Mode

Original control art for the Cheetor toy demonstrates quite clearly that the mold was not even intended to represent a cheetah, instead going for a generic large cat appearance. It's possible that Kenner's folks were planning from the beginning to quickly recolor the mold into Tigatron and so went a bit neutral in the appearance to make it more credible. While I've gone over some thoughts on this mold in my Universe Cheetor review, we can at least say here that it probably doesn't make any better a panther than a cheetah. Or a tiger, if we really want to be honest.

Shadow Panther is a pretty typical example of an early Beast Wars toy: Limited articulation - the front legs are jointed, but it's placed so the whole front leg swivels around a point just behind where the elbow should be. And even real points of articulation are mostly useless for the static nature of this mode. Robot mode bits are pretty obvious - biggest offenders are the stored weapons, with a gun barrel clearly running right under the tail, along with what might best be described as a tumor with a barrel sticking out of it under the body. Plus there's the whole backside of the rear legs. However, besides the *ahem* barrel-chested appearance, this mold gets off pretty well for at least blending in robot mode bits from the places they'd usually be obvious.

The only gimmick available is... well, slightly disturbing at best. The gun barrel on the underbody is part of a water-squirting weapon. So it's possible in beast mode to have that filled, and then to discharge it. Thankfully the barrel is pretty far forward on the body, but it's still really unsettling.


Transformation

To just look at the beast mode and robot mode separately, the process seems like it's a really simple stand-up-and-straighten-limbs type of transformation that has long been a stereotype of Beast Wars. The reality of the situation is that there's enough twists, turns, and reversals to make a surprisingly satisfying process. Just keep in mind that Shadow Panther had a slight remold compared to the original Cheetor and Tigatron uses of the mold, which keeps the beast head facing forward on the robot chest. Force it down and you will break something.


Robot Mode

Being a reuse of a first year toy, Shadow Panther has the Cheetor mold's original Mutant Head feature. This one is fairly unique, in being not a mask or traditional head-swap, but the Mutant Head is the back of the robot head. Polar Claw worked similarly, but in that case the head was rotated. For this mold, the head pivots down revealing a vaguely cat-like skull head. So vaguely, in fact, that it looks like it'd be more at home on Dinobot. The head still has a normal swivel at the neck, though it can be a little difficult to get in and manipulate the head due to the extremely high cat-skin collars

Arms are roughly on par with typical standards of the time, featuring one of the line's favored articulation shortcuts: the single jointed elbow placed so far forward it acts like a double joint. This is largely for transformation so the arms can properly fold into the back. Combined with the upper arm swivel and ball shoulder, you can get almost any practical pose you'd need. If you cheat with the transformation joint the shoulder is attached to, you can even expand the range a little. The cat head poking out of the torso does hamper this cheat, though.

As noted in the transformation notes, Shadow Panther originated a remold that would persist in all later uses of the mold, forcing the cat head to face forward in robot mode. The two prior uses allowed the cat head to fold in more and point down, compacting the torso a bit and filling in some of the empty spaces visible from certain angles. It is possible to force the head into the original position, but following that, all you'll accomplish is to break the toy. Meanwhile, there's totally a face on the cod piece. While there is a swivel at the wiast, it's pretty restricted to just transformation. The flip-down cod piece which is attached to the torso itself interferes quickly if you try to move the rather blocky, box-like pelvis.

One element I've never understood in this mold is the construction of the legs. For the most part, it's standard construction - things many action figures of the period would have loved to have. Hell, things some figures today are sorely lacking. But, the front of the robot legs are the backs of the cat legs, which makes a couple problems. Besides that the backs of the cat legs are colored for the robot mode, in this case silver, and stand out terribly, it also makes the feet built weird. Logic would suggest that the bigger part of the foot would be the front, and the small projection a nice heel. But, not. So the actual "toe" is the little silver bit that flips out from under the foot. Basically it looks like he's wearing a pair of boots backwards. (However you'd go about doing such a thing) Ever since first seeing the mold in 1996, I've thought this looked strange and goofy, and figured the whole time it could have been avoided by having a knee joint that could bend backward and forward. Questionable design choices aside, the feet are quite stable and though lacking an ankle joint, the wide edges of the heels can support many poses. And if you really want big cat feet in front, there's swivels in the thighs, making it a simple move. So long as you're okay with losing the knee joint, at least.



Accessories

-Tail Gun

Literally. The hindquarters detach during transformation, the length of the tail flips back, revealing the barrel of the rifle. Really skinny barrel, too. He looks like he swiped the weapon off a Go-Bot (G2, not Challenge Of The) and stuffed it up his... well, anyway. Though this mold was not the only one to do so, it's probably what most people think of when someone mentions the trend of backsides becoming guns.


-"Gut Gun"

That might actually be what the copy on Cheetor's packaging calls it. As disturbing as the water squirter feature was in beast mode, as a gun it gets a little worse, since the back half of the weapon is sculpted to resemble coiled intestines and other innards. I was trying to resist using the word until I cleared that sentence, but yes, that's the bladder of the weapon where the water is drawn into and stored. All of the entrail detailing seems to lead down to the barrel of the weapon, so... just what kind of fluid is being shot here?

I've never wanted to test this weapon. In my experience water-shooting objects can never be entirely dried, and the residual moisture can lead to deterioration of the material. Plus the barrel tip is painted, and why tempt fate?


Things to Look For When Buying Loose

Being the Takara toy most likely to be in a given person's collection, generally the example you find being sold are boxed. Whether having been never removed, or repackaged later. The same cautions apply as with any other use of the Cheetor mold: The Gut Gun is the most frequently missing piece, then the tail gun. The limbs connect to the body by ball joints so that's always a risk. All but the Gut Gun are pretty evident in a picture of the beast mode. Be wary of sales where only the robot mode is shown. In the more likely case of a boxed example, if it's not factory sealed from a reputable seller, be sure to find out if it's actually complete. Japanese Beast Wars came with bio/file cards too, so if that's important to you, make sure to find out about that. Those are hard to get by themselves later!


Closing Remarks

If someone was looking to only have one version of this mold, I typically wouldn't recommend this one. I'd suggest Telemocha or Takara's original Tigatron, in that order. Besides being no fan of black repaints for black repaints' sake it is technically possible to get at least one alternate version of this character. If not Takara's Beast Wars Metals Jaguar/Ravage there's the Wal-Mart exclusive Tripredacus Agent, which will come in a later installment of Evolution Revolution.

Shadow Panthers typically go pretty cheap since they were very easy to come by originally. It's probably the most economical use of the mold aside from the most recent Anniversary reuses. I got mine for $6 and didn't have another version at the time. It's not my favorite colors for the mold, but the mold itself is pretty solid. In the case of beast mode, that's almost literal.

The mold is Good, but this specific recolor sure isn't my favorite.


-ExVee